Create a habitat for your local wildlife
Turning Your Timber into Biodiversity Hubs
At Arbor Bear, we believe that when appropriate, tree work can create new habitat rather than simply remove it.
Following pruning or felling, suitable timber, branches and woodchip can be retained and carefully arranged to create eco-habitat piles. Using different sizes of timber, loose bark, brash and natural woody material creates sheltered, moisture-rich spaces that can provide valuable habitat for insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals.
Dead and decaying wood is an important part of a healthy ecosystem. As a habitat pile naturally breaks down, it can provide food and shelter for species including stag beetles and other invertebrates, while creating protected areas that may be used by frogs, toads, slow worms and other wildlife.
Rather than removing every piece of material from site, we'll consider whether suitable timber can be repurposed within the landscape, particularly in larger gardens, estates and woodland where habitat creation can form part of wider ecological management.
The Eco-Stick: Standing Deadwood Architecture
Where a tree or significant section of stem can be safely retained, there may also be opportunities to create standing habitat features.
Rather than leaving uniform cuts, specialist techniques such as coronet cutting can be used to replicate some of the natural fractures and exposed wood associated with ageing or storm-damaged trees. Where appropriate, cavities and other habitat features can also be created within retained timber to provide potential opportunities for invertebrates, birds and other wildlife.
This approach is sometimes known as veteranisation. The aim is to accelerate the development of some of the habitat features that would otherwise take many years to form naturally, while retaining valuable standing deadwood where it can safely remain.
For Arbor Bear, it's about looking at the tree and the wider environment as a whole. Not every branch needs to leave the site and not every declining tree needs to disappear completely. Where safety, location and ecology allow, material from tree work can become part of the next stage of the landscape.
Thoughtful arboriculture doesn't end with the cut.